How it had come to this?
by Claude Amelia Song
Summary: In the aftermath of Albus' death, one person, stands out of the others, contemplating why and how it had gotten to this. Death by a friend is never easy, but when one know the hows and the whys...the truth is hard to believe. Could they stay silent for the good of many?


Durmstrang

Part time

Grammar school entry: Write something that starts with a question or something that makes the reader curious.

Word count: 730

Thank you for betaing to Claire:)

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_How had it come to this?_

For the _Greater Good_, of course. She didn't know how long she had sat there, staring at the sky, unmoving and unfeeling. Her Slytherin mask was on display, as he would say. She knew why and she knew this was the best way, but it didn't mean she liked it. And suddenly, she started running; running out the castle, out of the grounds, towards the Forbidden Forest.

It wasn't supposed to be this way, not at all. He wasn't supposed to die less than a year after she came back. He thought she would understand, and she did, but it hurt more than words could say. She could forgive him for dying, but she didn't know if she could forgive him for the way he'd died. No matter what Albus said, Severus Snape will forever be haunted by the fact that he had been forced to kill the only man who had truly believed in him. She'd never forgive Albus for asking this of him. She promised herself that when the war was over, she'd find him and give the forgiveness he needed. Her husband had been foolish to think the young Slytherin wouldn't feel guilty. She had seen it.

Albus hadn't wanted her to be there for his death, but she _had_ to be. She knew they would never grow old together, after all Albus had already grew old while for her it had been nothing more than mere seconds. Time travel was a fickle thing. She'd met him as her Headmaster, she'd gone to the past and ended up his teacher and in _Slytherin _ of all houses. Now she knew that the Hat had sorted her into Gryffindor because he had seen in her head that she had been a Gryffindor.

A sole tear fell out of her eyes, and she wiped it quickly; she couldn't afford to be weak. She had to go and help Harry. Why Albus had brought him with him, she couldn't fathom. Another thing she'd never forgive him for. One thing it was for her to witness his death, she was no child, even if she looked so. She had lived through a war already, she had lost in the seconds it took her to travel from 1946 to 1995 almost all the friends she had made, all lost to time, while she had reverted to her young and beautiful face. She had had time to make peace with his death, Harry will need time and time they didn't have.

She heard them calling for her before she saw their faces. She put on a small smile and let a small part of her grief show on her face. She had a part to play. But as she looked on the spot she'd seen Severus disappear she swore she'd help him survive, just as she would help Harry. After all, she'd promised Albus.

"Hermione, come on, everyone is in the infirmary," Ron called to her and she nodded in response.

She followed him, finally giving into her grief and letting the tears fall. There she had to listen to everyone curse Severus' name and blaming Albus for trusting him.

She couldn't speak because she knew that if she did, she'd ruin it, her Gryffindor side burning to the injustice that it was. And she'd be treated as a child, something that she hated with a passion. They had agreed not tell anyone about her time travel adventure, if it could be called that, not until the war was over.

She shook her head quietly after hearing them wonder how and why they hadn't seen the betrayal. How it all happened?

Hermione excused herself and left, going alone in the office that now belonged to Minerva McGonagall. She left, because she knew the answers to their questions, she knew why it had happened and how and she knew that they hadn't seen the betrayal because there wasn't one. Everything had to do with one little stone, that now stood quite innocently inside a golden snitch and with two brothers and one's friend fighting each other. Looking at his portrait who was now looking at her with guilt and love, she found in herself to smile at him, even if she couldn't forgive yet and murmur that she'd come back one day, before leaving promptly. One day, that is.


End file.
